For Better or for Worse, “Old” (2021) is Vintage Shyamalan (Part II of II)

(Continued from Part I)

Shyamalan’s films have never been known for air-tight plots, but “Old” suffers from glaring holes even by his standards. Three young children turn into teenagers, then into adolescents, with visible changes to their physical looks, yet somehow they can’t see the transformations in themselves. A body washes up on the beach and turns into a skeleton in a couple hours, yet adults don’t seem to age during the same period. The explanation of why everyone is aging so rapidly or why no one can get off the beach is just mumbo jumbo nonsense.

Shymalan’s greatest skill is in the storytelling, yet somewhere between “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and “Lady in the Water” (2006), he’d lost his midas touch. The screenplay of “Old” is several notches below his best work, suffering from clunky dialogue (you can tell time will be an important theme of the movie because it’s the first conversation of the Cappa family) and unsubtle character introductions (you learn that Charles is a doctor and that Patricia suffers from epilepsy because the latter suffers from an episode while the former rushes to her rescue).

For all its faults, though, the feeling you get from watching “Old” is quintessential Shyamalan. Once the story gets going on the beach, the mood of the film, through its cinematography and eerie music, provides quiet suspense. The deliberate pacing of the characters’ meeting their fates adds to the familiar slow-build thrill.

I shan’t disclose the big reveal in the final fifteen minutes so you can experience it yourself, but whether you find it satisfying, underwhelming or pointless, you won’t be able to deny that it’s typical Shyamalan.

Because I’m a fan of Shyamalan’s films, I enjoyed sitting through the sensory experience of “Old.” If you’re indifferent to Shyamalan, you’ll probably find this film ridiculous and you should ding a point off of my 5.5 rating.

And if you’re hostile to Shyamalan, you should avoid the film all together, because the only experience you’ll probably end up with is screaming at the screen, “Not this again!”